


Jeff has a Dream

by BornSl1ppy



Category: Community (TV)
Genre: Canon Compliant, Dream Sequence, F/M, Post-Season/Series 05 Finale
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-09
Updated: 2020-06-09
Packaged: 2021-03-03 23:27:01
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,789
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24623938
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BornSl1ppy/pseuds/BornSl1ppy
Summary: When he entered his apartment he made his way right to the scotch on his kitchen counter. Although the day in the end had gone better than expected, he still felt this nagging feeling at the back of his mind begging to be set free. He sat on his sofa in the silent apartment just drinking from the bottle. He felt his lids become heavy with sleep. He stumbled towards his bedroom, landing carelessly on his bed, his head narrowly missing the head board.He soon drifted into a deep sleep...
Relationships: Annie Edison/Jeff Winger
Comments: 2
Kudos: 35





	Jeff has a Dream

**Author's Note:**

> This is where I thought Jeff’s mind would be after the Season 5 finale. This isn’t necessarily Jeff/Annie but it plays a significant role in it. I hope you like it, I really loved writing it which is why I really wanted to share it. Would love feedback :)

As the partying died down and the Dave Matthews songs began to get more and more obscure, the group which had been the Greendale 7 that had now turned into the Greendale 5 plus The Dean, Duncan, Hickey and Chang, left the building to part ways.

Jeff felt happy with people he would consider his family. He saw Abed talking to Britta about a potential meteor crashing into earth. He turned to see Hickey and Duncan had begun to leave mentioning something about a bar and Shirley and the Dean questioning Chang about that bag of money. He and Annie stood together looking on at their friends.

“I still can’t believe they almost sold the school to Subway.” Jeff said interrupting their silence.

“It’s Greendale, what else would you expect.” She retorted chuckling slightly.

“It has been an insane day.”

“Says the newly engaged guy.” Annie said, turning her head towards Britta. Jeff felt a twinge of embarrassment enter his system, Greendale being saved reminding him of why they don’t really work as a couple.

“Yeah, we decided that was stupid.” Annie turned back to Jeff. “It was just the heat of the moment and everything happening at once...” Jeff trailed off as he saw Annie nod sympathetically.

“It’s good to hear that, you know for the sake of the group.”

“Yeah, definitely.” He smiled at her weakly, she mirrored him.

Soon Britta, Abed, and Shirley joined them, the rest of the group having left. They seemed to be continuing a conversation they were having before joining them.

“So that machine *actually* exists? Oh my.” Shirley said, clutching her cross necklace.

“And then when we got trapped down there Jeff saved us.” Abed continued, pointing to Jeff.

“Wait, how?”

Everyone turned toward Jeff who now was feeling anxious of his truth.

“You never did say what you did.” Britta added.

“I... just thought of you guys. You’re my family and I guess I care enough about all of you for it to be a ‘blast of human passion’.” Jeff explained, feeling sure that they would take that as the answer. And to an extent it was true. He thought about everyone individually I’m that moment, but he knew that only one person in his head (heart) really did cause that door to open.

“Aww!” Annie and Shirley say in unison while Britta smiled. Abed, however, looked unconvinced.

“Why would you get us to turn around then?” Abed questioned. Jeff looked at him, an annoyed expression slowly coming onto his face. “I assumed we were passed the point of hiding the fact that we like each other.”

“Does it matter?” Jeff interjected. “I mean, maybe it was so I wouldn’t hurt the Dean’s feelings by not looking at him.

“You we’re looking at the Dean when I turned around.” Britta said.

“To make him think he helped.”

“Ohhh.” Abed, Annie and Britta all said.

Jeff felt calm again, noting to take a sigh of relief when he got in his car.

“Jeff you’re such a closeted softy.” Annie teased, lightly punching his arm.

“Ugh you’re gonna make me barf, come on Shirley let’s get out of here.” Britta said. Shirley nodded rolling her eyes at Jeff and Annie’s ‘googly eyes’. They walked away together, parked near each other.

“What was that about?” Annie asked rhetorically.

“Same old tension between you two.” Abed replied. Jeff and Annie dismissed his comment before moving slightly away from each other.

“I guess we should get going then.” Annie said, looking at Abed.

“Right, I’ll see you soon.” Jeff said, waving a hand while backing towards his Lexus. Abed and Annie waved back as they made it towards Annie’s car.

Jeff took that sigh as soon as he was in the car. He tilted his head back into the seat for a moment before turning the key and leaving the parking lot.

When he entered his apartment he made his way right to the scotch on his kitchen counter. Although the day in the end had gone better than expected, he still felt this nagging feeling at the back of his mind begging to be set free. He sat on his sofa in the silent apartment just drinking from the bottle. He felt his lids become heavy with sleep. He stumbled towards his bedroom, landing carelessly on his bed, his head narrowly missing the head board.

He soon drifted into a deep sleep...

——————

He sat on his mother’s sofa while she talked about Elizabeth or Carol or whatever new best friend’s husband had gone and left them. He felt stiff and unfocused, his eyes darting across the room looking for an escape.  
Dorie continued on, unfazed by his visible discomfort.

“Oh and when she told me I thought she was lying! Who’s Paul to think he could do any better than Carol at that age with the money he makes. Ha!” Dorie’s arm raised in the air and came down onto her knee quickly as if it was in fact a real knee slapper.

Jeff gripped his jeans as he felt his palms begin to sweat. He caught something small in the corner of his eye and decided to follow it. Jeff glanced down to his feet and saw a baby crawl toward his foot, dressed in a sky blue onesie with little clouds scattered across it. For the first time in a while he felt he should care. He began to feel all these emotions at once: intrigue, warmth, contentment, happiness, love, fear, resentment and hurt. This child wasn’t just an innocent being but a beacon of understanding and reflection.  
Dorie reaches down to the baby and picked it up.  
“Oh Jeffy Jeff! My sweet baby boy...”

Jeff looked at his mother confused, all her attention was on the kid but she was using his name.  
“Mom, I’m right here.” He said waving a hand.  
“Special boy a special, special boy!” She continued unfazed.

The sofa began to feel like a solid stone, there was an oddness in its presence immediately. Jeff rose from the furniture to find himself now alone on a beach. Jeff wasn’t sure if he could hear the rushing waves or not. He’s never been to a beach before having never travelled outside of Colorado. He crouched down to the sand and picked up a large shell and held it up to his ear.

“...the zoo? Again... I just want you to care...at least think about what you are doing to him...fine!” *slam*

Jeff quickly retracted the shell to see it was now a telephone, connected to a cord that ran curiously through the sand. He felt the need to follow it so he did.

Soon the beach became his old condo, the one that made him the lawyer, the one before Greendale. On the wall near the kitchen was where the cord stopped, connected to the rest of the telephone. He placed it gently on the receiver and looked around at his old life. Floor to ceiling windows lead out to a small balcony. On the balcony stood a man, same height, wearing a pristine suit, looking out into the sky. Jeff decided to move towards the door to the balcony when the phone began to ring.

Jeff turned between the phone and the man before giving into the ringing and grabbing the phone with a little too much force. He held it up to his ear, waiting for who ever was on the other line to pick up.

“Jeff?” A woman said. She cleared her throat and began to speak again. “Jeff? Is that you? It’s Annie from your Spanish Study Group?” She said weakly in a questioning tone, almost hesitant that this was in fact his number.

Jeff swallowed at the sound of her voice, although she seemed different. This was first year Annie. An Annie that was unsure of herself. An Annie, that yes he had found attractive, but never thought of her as a sexual prospect, (until of course the time where he thought of all his study group as sexual prospects.)  
“Uh, yeah this is Jeff...” He trailed off, unsure of what else to say to her.

“Umm, anyway I just wanted to call you to tell you I thought it was really great that you defended Britta in that whole cheating on the test thing, although I have no idea how she could do such a thing in the first place.”

Jeff stared at the back of the man who drank from a small glass, a bottle of scotch open on the table behind him.

“Yeah, I love you guys I wouldn’t want any of us to be divided.”

“Jeff!” Annie’s voice said, now more confident and a little flirtatious. “I know, and I know you don’t have any desire to use our good will for lawyery evil and even though we’ve had this *thing* going on between us all this year, I know you don’t play favourites.”

“Do we have to talk about how there isn’t any *thing* between us again?” He exclaimed. The man looked down, leaning dangerously over the edge of the balcony.

The line was silent for a moment before Annie spoke again. “...Jeff...” She sounded calm and assured. “I’m not this kid you want to label me as. I think you and me both know exactly how you feel.”

Jeff walked toward the balcony as the man became more and more reckless. “Annie, I...” he stopped himself again, his throat gone dry. The man in the pristine suit sat on the ledge, both feet dangling down to the empty street below.  
“I think-“

“You think that you’re too old, and I’m too naive and I’m too good for you and you’re, what Jeff, creepy?”

Jeff lowered his head. “Yes.”

The line went dead. Jeff looked up. The man was gone from the ledge. Jeff dropped the phone frantically and rushed out onto the balcony to look down below. He saw nothing. Well not nothing. Nothing turned into a white bed sheet that ordered him to drop onto. He looked behind him and saw the condo was gone, only a grey wall, leaving him at a dead end. He took a moment to fully say goodbye to his past life. Everything that he was as a lawyer, even the narcissistic prick he had been at Greendale for four years. He lept onto the sheet.

It was soft and comforting. He felt like a little boy again, crawling into his mother’s bed to feel safe at night. He listened to the lullaby that his mother used to sing him when he was a child.  
“You are my sunshine, my only sunshine. You make me happy when skies are gray. You’ll never know dear how much I love you, please don’t take my sunshine away...”

Jeff felt a sting in the corner of his eyes as he pushed against the fabric to stand up, but his hands ended up falling through it, the cushion surface being too soft and pillowy for him to balance against. The fabric sunk further and further, Jeff helplessly held on, unsure of where it would lead.

The sheet tore and with it went Jeff, landing quickly into the study room. Although maybe it wasn’t the study room? Jeff was sure it was all the same furniture, but everything felt brighter and more saturated like a more hopeful present.  
Jeff got up from the floor he fell on and looked up to see the ceiling was now just as the study room’s ceiling was. He begins to hear a chattering approaching, as it got louder he recognised the voices as his study group. And as quickly as he recognised the voices so too came the people who owned them. First Shirley holding her bag laughing at something Britta had said, who was following close behind her, then Abed and Annie as Abed discussed something passionately. (Probably something to do with Inspector Spacetime) Jeff thought to himself. Then Pierce and Troy, Troy looking offended, which wasn’t surprising if you had just been walking with Pierce.

He sat down in his regular chair and looked around at his friends and smiled. Everyone else seems to be smiling too.

“Good news everyone.” Abed said after everyone had quieted down from their separate conversations. “Everything is perfect and therefore we can all be content in our lives.”

“Ooh!” Shirley and Annie said excitedly in unison. Britta began clapping.

“Hell yeah! I knew it was possible!” Troy exclaimed happily looking at his best friend.

“Look at me now dad!” Pierce said up to the sky.

“Being content never felt so good.” Jeff said, leaning back on his chair, crossing his arms.

“Not in England, I’ll tell you that much. No one is happier than Kanye West when Taylor Swift wins a Grammy over there.”

Jeff turned towards Professor Duncan who seemed to have magically appeared in the seat next to him.

“You can’t be happy when you’ve seen what I’ve seen.” A new, gravelly voice added.

Once again Jeff turned his head to now see Hickey sitting where Pierce has been. Troy has also been replaced, but just with air. Jeff looked concerned at the changing environment. It was almost as if a dark cloud fell upon the study room.

Everyone looked kinda neutral now, just sitting there looking at each other before all turning towards Jeff who now appeared frightened.

“Jeff?” Britta said, not really noticing his concern. Jeff ignored her for a second before slowly panning to her face.

“Yeah?”

“Are you gonna start the meeting?”

“Meeting? But Troy and Pierce-“ He said turning his attention back to their seats, as he cut himself off feeling a little crazy.

The group seemed to look worried now, Britta lifted her hand to try and comfort him but retracted it at the last second before turning towards Annie, Shirley, then Abed mouth agape, shrugging slightly.

“Oh, Jeffrey...” Shirley spoke, but soon trailed off.

“Is this a grief episode?” Abed interjected, pointing in the air. “Because if so you’d really be pulling an Abed, Jeff. You should really just stick to the reality check trope.”

“What?” Jeff said now looking confusingly Abed.

“Jeff, are you okay?” Annie asked.

“Umm.” Jeff took a moment to think about his answer. “Yes.” He said, purposefully looking into her eyes, for assurance.

“What the hell is this guy on?” The cynical Hickey interjected. He looked at Annie for the answer, but she was still focused on him not noticing that the question was directed at her.

“No, sorry I just need to go do something.” Jeff rose from his seat, quickly glancing at his friends before turning and quickly walking out.

As soon as he did his scenery changed again. It was a tight space and he felt him self lean down to make sure his head didn’t hit the roof. It looked like a trailer, with a small table and a thin door he assumed lead to a tiny bathroom. But then the room swayed and Jeff realised he was aboard the ‘Childish Tycoon’.

He grabbed onto a wall and glanced around, his eyes landing on a ladder leading up to the top of the boat. He walked cautiously towards it, still holding onto the walls for balance. When he stepped onto the deck he saw Troy at the wheel, shirtless and wearing a pair of cargo shorts.

“Troy?” Jeff asked approaching him. Troy was looking upwards at the clouds, one hand shielding his eyes from the sun as the other held the wheel. 

“I don’t know, Levar it looks like it might rain soon.” Troy said still looking upwards.

“Troy.”

Troy finally looked down to see Jeff. He looked both surprised, happy and confused all at once.

“Jeff!? Wait how are you even here? Have you been a stowaway this whole time?”

“Um no. I think I just appeared.” Jeff said unsure of how he was here too. “I think I’m dreaming or ODing again.”

“You ODed?! Ugh I miss everything cool.”

“It wasn’t that cool, I just believed I was in a GI Joe cartoon, it’s a whole thing.”

“Ok so if you are dreaming this means that I’m not even real...” Troy looked down at his hands sadly.

“I uh. I think I need to learn or do something.” Jeff sat down on the deck holding onto the metal fence beside him. “I’m just not sure what I’m looking for. My mind can’t keep up to where I am. I thought you and Pierce were still in the study group and we were all happy...”

Troy stood in front of Jeff. “I never thought that I would have to give Jeff Winger advice. You’re like a man’s man!”

Jeff was looking at his feet intently. “Well Troy I’m as broken and as complicated as everyone else. Even if I don’t always want to admit it.”

“You’ve never been given the chance to prove yourself as your own man. You’ve just always been your own man.” Jeff looked up at Troy. “You think that because you’ve become a pretty standard definition of manliness you have to keep it up your whole life. You should let go, let yourself feel a little deeper, hug your friends a little tighter and admit to yourself that you have so much more to achieve than just being jacked.”

Jeff chuckled. Troy held out his hand and Jeff took it, being lifted from the ground. Troy held out his arms and Jeff met him in an embrace.

“Thank you” Jeff said before parting from him. When he did, he saw Troy was no longer Troy, but instead he was Abed. Jeff just kept a hold of Abed’s shoulders looking at him not really surprised at this point but more waiting for an explanation.

“Troy told me everything.” Abed said, being his neutral self as always. “I guess you’re trying to accept something? I thought that would have already been dealt with with our season finale but loose ends come up even when you think you’ve tightly tied them up.”

“Well-“ Jeff stopped himself when looked around at the setting. “Wait. Where are we?”

“A sound stage on the set of ‘The Community Chronicles!’” He said expressing excitement with his hands.

Jeff had been looking at cameras and lights that were all set up towards him. He turned around to see an almost exact replica of the cafeteria except the signs said ‘Red Peak College’. He suspected for legal reasons.

“I don’t understand. Why are we here?” Jeff asked turning back to Abed.

“Since this is your dream, I guess I’m going to tell you something about yourself.”

“So what ‘scene’ are you shooting?”

“Last day of semester. The group saves Red Peak from being bought by Pizza Hut. The scene where we dance to Dave Matthews was just filmed.” Abed began to smirk. “Final scene of the day is Jeff’s blast of human passion.”

Jeff stepped back slightly, feeling the sudden urge to run far away. He closed his hands tightly and looked away from Abed, thinking that would make Abed not notice the panic in his face.

“Don’t worry. It’s good that you’re here actually, I could use some notes since I had to guess what that blast of passion was.”

“Uh right...”

Abed gestured towards a hall, telling Jeff to follow him as he quickly walked to it. Jeff felt maybe he could sneak away now, unnoticed by Abed, able to avoid himself letting slip of what exactly opened that door. Abed walked through to another sound stage, this one matching the Greendale basement. He saw actors who resembled the study group talk to each other, one of them, a Jeff type walking over to Abed.

“Abed! Could I have a moment of your time?” The guy said.

Jeff stares him down slightly. He turned to Abed. “Couldn’t you have gotten someone a little taller?”

“I’m not going to substitute height for talent, Jeff.”

“Jeff?” The guy said now looking in amazement towards him. “No way am I standing beside the REAL Jeff Winger! I’m Danny, Jeff on the show.”

“Um-“

“Oh! You could help me with this! I need to figure out my motivation-“

“Jeff, I could really use those notes on my script.” Abed said poking a script towards Jeff. He took it before he could jab him once again.

“Did you say Jeff Winger was here?!” Exclaimed another actor.

The voices of the set kept speaking, overwhelming his head. He turned around and ran. Not looking where he was going, he tripped on a light cable, his whole body falling to the floor.

He got up and saw himself in Britta’s apartment. She was walking over to him with a frozen bag of peas.

“Here, for your arm.” She said in a comforting manner, unlike Britta.

“Thanks.” Jeff looked down at his arm which now looked pretty badly bruised and followed it to his hand, still holding the script.

“Abed has a script.” Jeff sat down on her couch, having gotten up from the living room floor. “For the season finale of The Community Chronicles entitled ‘Basic Pizza Oven’.”

“Huh. A brand taking over a school. Sooo original.” Britta said sarcastically, falling down onto the couch beside him.

“It’s based on us dummy.”

“Still... my point stands.” 

Jeff smiled and began reading the script. “I can’t believe we almost got married.” He chuckled and looked over at Britta to see her as amused as he was.

“God, that was weird.”

Jeff looked at the script, on a scene between just Annie and Abed. She was crying and he was comforting her, saying something about a Jeff/Britta spin off show not working out. He felt weird. He felt like he had just violated their trust, but he mostly felt selfish. “I didn’t realise us getting engaged would effect anyone like this.”

“Huh?” Britta said, leaning over to read the script. “Oh...”

He flicked through a few pages and landed on the moment that look like it had been revised over and over, different scenarios for different results. What Jeff did to open the door. Notes surrounded the typed up stage directions and inner dialogue of the characters. The original suggested that Jeff thought about them all at once Jeff thinking to himself ‘this is my family’ but it had been crossed out with a little annotation saying ‘why would he have said shut up to me if this was the case?’. Other little quotes from characters were scattered on the page; ‘Britta: we could be the worst, together?’, ‘Dean: Dean and Jeffrey besties for life!’, ‘Annie: This can’t work, can it?’. At the bottom of the page, almost completely scribble through said ‘Jeff rubs nipples’. Jeff winced as he read it, causing him to toss the script onto the coffee table.

“Hey! I was reading that.”

Jeff shrugged. He stood up and walked through a door that used to lead to a bathroom, but now lead to his mother’s home.

“Hi mom.”

Dorie looked over at her son and smiled widely.

“Hey, Jeffrey! Why don’t you sit down and I’ll make us a cup of tea?” Jeff sat down on the sofa again. He looked at the framed pictures of the fireplace of him as a kid, him and his mom and one photo of his dad holding him when he was a newborn. He frowned at it, thinking about their relationship.

“Here you go.” Dorie said passing a mug to him as she sat on a perpendicular seat.

“Thanks.”

“What’s wrong sweetie?”

“Me, I think.” He grasped the mug a little harder, refusing to make eye contact with his mother.

“There’s nothing wrong with you, darling. Why would you think such a thing?”

Jeff continued to avoid eye contact as he thought about what was wrong with him. He studied the photograph on the fireplace again and recognised its effect on him. “There’s this wall between myself and my feelings. I’m not sure I can trust anyone to stay with me.”

Dorie followed her son’s eyes to the photo. Her demeanour changed, becoming a little sorrowful. She reached a hand out and squeezed his arm. He looked to her, he felt like he would cry if he said another word.

“Do not let what he did to you define the rest of you relationships, Jeff. I stayed around didn’t I?” Jeff nodded. “Sometimes to be happy we have to take risks, even if that risk can seem overwhelming and frightening. But you need to take the step. Don’t wait around thinking what you want will come to you. I mean you know that, look at the last 4 years and how much you’ve changed through your own initiative.”

Jeff began to cry anyway. He wiped his tears with his sleeve as his mother comforted him. They hugged before he got up and left through the front door.

He walked straight into the basement of Greendale.

Everyone was turned around, another Jeff standing there with the helmet thing on, staring at their backs. He walked up to himself and whispered in his ear. “Be honest.”

When the door began to open, everyone turned back towards Jeff. He didn’t turn away from Annie however, he took the helmet off and walked towards the opened passage as everyone looked at him.

Russel Borchert decided to speak first. “What’d you do?”

“Don’t worry about it let’s go.”

“Jeff!” Annie shouted as he briskly jogged past her. He turned around. Only him and her are in the dark hallway now. She walked towards him slowly while he stands in place, trying to look like he didn’t just admit to himself he was in love with her. “What did you do?”

Jeff looked down. “It doesn’t matter, we should go-“ she cuts him off as he looks behind him towards the exit.

“What did you do?” She asked more sternly this time, grabbing onto his arm. 

He closed his eyes tightly and shook his head, trying to push everything away. But it echoed in his ears; “Be Honest”.

“I looked into my heart. And...” He trailed off. He was looking at her hand still on his arm.

“Oh sorry.” She retracted her hand quickly, putting it behind her back.

“No. It’s just. I need you to know me and Britta- It’s dumb. It’s not real and it’s not going to happen.” He looked up to her eyes. They were fluttering, trying to hold back her embarrassment and tears.

“I just though you two were you know... madly in love or whatever.” She was now the one to look away.

“I guess she was a safety net. I think I was a safety net too, for her. We don’t work together. If we stayed together we would never grow as people. We’d be stuck as two narcissists too afraid to die alone.” He pushed her chin up, asking non verbally to look at him. “I’m at this point in my life where I want to hold onto something empty but reliable because I’m too afraid to feel anything real. I was scared of what was in my heart, where I found you. When you turned around I looked at you all. My family. But I made you all turn around because I’m a coward to my own feelings. Feelings I feel only for you. Feelings that tell me I love you.”

A tear dropped from Annie’s eye as a small grin came across her face. She wrapped her arms around him and pulled him into a hug. Jeff was sure it felt like home. He tightly pulled her in, letting his head lean into her hair. They stay like that for what may have well been an eternity, in each others arms just holding one another. 

“Jeff?” She mumbled into his chest.

“Hmm.”

“Don’t forget this is still a dream.”

——————

He woke up with a shudder as his head rolled into the pillow a little more. He groaned at the light cascading through the slightly opened blinds of his bedroom window. He dreaded this reality he chose for himself. Part of him felt this was easy. Keep it as it is. If the Jeff and Britta pilot couldn’t work, how could the Jeff and Annie one survive? Another part of him felt so deeply. That part Jeff felt he must bury deep inside himself. He rubbed his eyes as he adjusted to the sun.

There would be a time and a place for him and his confession, but he felt that it wasn’t today. Until then, he was more or less content in his little family of misfits.


End file.
